Researcher urges ban on atrazine

Central Illinois was recently ground zero for one of the most contested environmental debates since PCBs were banned in the 1970s.

At issue is atrazine, an herbicide used on 80 percent of corn fields in Illinois and currently under review by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

CLARE HOWARD

Central Illinois was recently ground zero for one of the most contested environmental debates since PCBs were banned in the 1970s.

At issue is atrazine, an herbicide used on 80 percent of corn fields in Illinois and currently under review by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

More than 70 percent of Americans are exposed to atrazine daily because it volatilizes and can travel more than 600 miles in the air, returning to earth in rainwater, said Tyrone Hayes, researcher and professor at University of California-Berkeley.

In a speech at Illinois State University he said the EPA should outlaw atrazine because of human and environmental damage documented by research, some of it his own.

A representative of Syngenta, the manufacturer of atrazine, attended that speech and the company later countered it is safe for humans and the environment and essential for agriculture.

The EPA reviewed atrazine research and re-registered the chemical in 2006. The current EPA reevaluation of atrazine is a waste of taxpayer money, it said.

Hayes said atrazine is an endocrine disruptor linked with breast and prostate cancer and noted Syngenta has connections with the company that manufactures the leading drug for suppressing breast cancer tumors.

Syngenta was formed by the merger of Novartis and Astra Zeneca, while the manufacturer of the drug Femara or letrozole, a leading breast cancer medication, is Novartis Pharmaceuticals.

The public has been told that the EPA determined 3 parts per billion of atrazine in drinking water is safe, Hayes said. He said his research shows male frogs are chemically castrated by 1 part per billion.

"Our grandchildren will be exposed to atrazine being applied right now," he said, referring to the time atrazine remains in the environment.

Following Hayes' lecture, representatives of Syngenta met with reporters and the editorial board of the Journal Star to discuss atrazine.

Kurtis Reeg, president and managing partner with Reeg Lawyers LLC of St. Louis, is lead defense attorney fighting a class action lawsuit by municipal water companies seeking compensation for the cost of water treatment to reduce atrazine levels in drinking water.

Reeg said that, although Europe banned atrazine, it has been replaced with a different product from the same chemical family. He could not comment on whether that alternative chemical contaminates water runoff and volatilizes into the air. He said the European ban was based on politics, not science.

Reeg also faults critics who charge Syngenta funding taints research findings. "The safety of atrazine has been widely misreported," he said, noting that by law, registrants of an herbicide must test the safety of their products, so it's specious to fault research that finds atrazine is safe because that research is funded by Syngenta.

Tim Pastoor, a Syngenta scientist, said spikes of atrazine in drinking water are not a health threat. "I'll drink up to 200 parts per billion. I'm not concerned with daily spikes," he said.

Pastoor said Hayes refused to share his raw research with the EPA to support his findings. However, in his lecture Hayes quoted from a letter he received from the EPA thanking him for sharing his raw data.

Hayes said his early research was funded by Syngenta but said the company suppressed his findings. He later duplicated the study and released results showing atrazine is linked with breast cancer.